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Who we are

FRA was established in 2007 as an EU Agency with the specific task of providing independent, evidence-based advice on fundamental rights.

The agency’s 90 staff members include legal experts, political and social scientists, statisticians, and communication and networking experts. Their work is guided by the FRA Management Board.

The Board is responsible for defining the agency’s work priorities, approving its budget and monitoring its work. It is comprised of independent experts, one appointed by each Member State, two European Commission representatives and one independent expert appointed by the Council of Europe sit on the board.

FRA is the successor organisation to the former European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), but was awarded a far broader mandate to provide evidence-based advice on a wide range of fundamental rights, in line with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The EUMC, which was established in Vienna as an independent body of the European Union in 1997, took up its activities in 1998 and ended them on 28 February 2007. Official EUMC documents and reports are available on the FRA website.